Extracts from a speech made in Cairo to the 2nd Conference
of Heads of State and Governments of Non-Aligned Countries,
1964

For some days we have been following with great attention
the speeches in the general debate. For us these speeches have
given us grounds to feel proud and have greatly encouraged us
in our liberating struggle.

In your speeches, you have unanimously condemned imperialism
and every sort of foreign domination as being the main source
of the tensions, the suffering and the dangers which burden
humanity. You have unequivocally reaffirmed your hatred of war,
of foreign military bases and of recourse to violence as a
means of settling conflicts between ideolo­gies, between
nations and between states. You have fiercely defended peaceful
co-existence, loyal and constructive inter­national
co-operation and the need for equitable sharing of the world's
riches, which have been created by man. By an argument as
intelligent as it is free from prejudice you have shown that
the banning of nuclear tests and weapons, as well as general
and total disarmament, have become a necessary condition for
guaranteeing the survival of the human species and even of our
planet. In your just and exemplary aspiration to serve humanity
you have reaffirmed your support for the principles of the
United Nations Charter. You have thus shown your firm
determination to work effectively for the immediate liberation
of that Organisation, which is at present a giant with its
hands tied, so that, its structure renewed, its institutions
democratised and its voice strengthened to include those of
hundreds of millions of human beings, it may fully serve the
noble causes of freedom, fraternity, progress and happiness for
mankind.

But you have done more than this. Faithfully translating the
unanimous feelings of active solidarity of your peoples with
our liberation struggle, you have given a striking proof of
your position as combatants for liberty. You, our fellow
combatants, at present occupy the place of honour which history
has reserved for you and which allows you to con­tribute by
all necessary means to the pressing elimination of colonial
domination in our countries.

In the framework of your concrete solidarity with the
national liberation of peoples and with their inalienable right
to control their own destinies-one of the cornerstones of
non-alignment-you have also, directly or indirectly, given your
fraternal support to the peoples of heroic and socialist Cuba,
of South Vietnam, indefatigable and victori­ous combatants,
of Cyprus and of the Congo, tragically related by the blow of
brazen foreign intervention, of martyrised Arab Palestine and
of Puerto Rico, that small island which is so often forgotten
and in which, as the evidence of its delegation has shown us,
more than two million human beings are still suffering under
the double yoke of imperialism and colonialism and are
struggling, despite the power which faces them, for national
independence.

Mr President, Your Majesties, Your Exellencies, the walls of
the University of Cairo will guard with understandable zeal the
echoes of your speeches, which have been so many commitments
and lessons of humanism. And tomorrow, in the course of
research into notable contributions to the well­being of
humanity, people may well ask themselves whether, given the
limitations imposed on the United Nations in this year 1964,
the Conference of Non-Aligned Countries, in which no spectre
can stifle the freedom to be free or fidelity to principles,
has not constituted the most important or at least the most
effective international organisation of our times.

Mr President, before returning to continue the political and
armed struggle for the liberation of our peoples, we wish to
reaffirm our active confidence in the practical value of this
high international gathering. For our part, we are aware that
the complex nature of our struggle is not limited simply to the
elimination of the colonial yoke. Whether we wish it or not, we
are fighting against imperialism, which is the basis of
colonialism, in every form.

It is on the basis of this universal principle that we would
like to express our firm conviction that our struggle, be it
purely political or armed, is also an expression of the great
struggle for peaceful co-existence and for peace. We want to
carry out, at least, a policy of peaceful co-existence and
peace with all peoples and all states, but in our concrete
situation we consider that our very existence as free and
independent nations and states is a sine qua non for this
policy of co­existence and peace. To co-exist one must
first of all exist, so the imperialists and the colonialists
must be forced to retreat so that we can make a new
contribution to human civilisation, based on the work, the
dynamic personality and the culture of our peoples.

To make this contribution in independence, fraternity and
equality with all peoples, it does not seem to us to be
necessary to get involved in the ideological disputes and
conflicts which are splitting the world. We do not need to
follow any line: our position must be and remain based on the
fundamental aspirations of our peoples. There is, how­ever,
in our ethic of non-alignment one vital need for
align­ment: we must be capable-and free-to adopt without
equivocation any position which aims to serve the dignity,
emancipation and progress of peoples.

Mr President, Your Majesties, Your Excellencies, you all
represent peoples who have had experience in the struggle for
national liberation, albeit to differing degrees, according to
the diversity of your historical conditions. Thus you know
better than we do that this struggle is in its very essence a
daily capitalisation of efforts and sacrifices for a better
life and for social liberation. Allow us to affirm to you that
the policy of non-alignment which was defined three years ago
in Belgrade and has been strengthened during this
Con­ference, is a guarantee for the efforts and sacrifices
capitalised by our peoples for their total liberation from
every sort of oppression.